Tales from Brick City Ep. 2—"Activist banned from Newark City Council files suit”

By Public Square Amplified Team

Newark, NJ—On Feb. 7, Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver ordered police to remove activist Munirah El Bomani from a city council meeting after she interrupted Business Administrator Eric Pennington. El Bomani was subsequently banned for two meetings for violating council rules.

El Bomani is suing the municipal government, calling the ban a violation of her rights. But it is not an uncommon practice at City Hall, where exclusion is used to deal with allegedly disruptive commentators.

She filed an injunction in Superior Court on Feb. 20 to restore her access to council meetings. In her application to the court, El Bomani describes how she was excluded from the meeting without due process and asks the court to restore her access to the meetings and to award her $150,000 in damages, plus legal fees. 

Public Square Amplified spoke with El Bomani outside City Hall about her experience and why she felt compelled to sue the City of Newark. 

"City/State actors are violating my rights under the Open Public Meetings Act ... and also violating my civil rights," El Boumani wrote to the court. 

The court has not yet set a date for a hearing on her injunction.

Below is a transcription of Public Square Amplified’s video on the ban of activist Munirah El Bomani from Newark City Council meetings. The video features an interview with Munirah El Bomani and footage of the incident from the Feb. 7 meeting.

Narrator: Welcome to another episode of Tales From Brick City, a series about the communities of Newark and experiences, challenges and solutions that define us.

On February 7th, Newark activist Munirah El Bomani was ejected from a regular session of the Newark City Council meeting after she interrupted Business Administrator Eric Pennington during his response to the public and council. According to a letter from the City Clerk, El Bomani violated the Council’s rules of conduct and was banned for two subsequent council meetings. Now, El Bomani has filed a motion in Superior Court asking the court to issue an injunction against the City of Newark for the ban, which she says violates her Constitutional right to free speech. 

Munirah El Bomani: “So like February the 7th, I was on a speaker list to speak at the City Council, which is a hearing of citizens, which is open to the public. And I spoke. And I did my presentation, which was 5 minutes. And at the end of the Council meeting, the Council as well as the business administrator have the opportunity to make comments. So, the business administrator made a comment about the comment that I made. So, after he got up to comment, the business administrator, I responded and I asked for, you know, my equal airtime. And as soon as I started responding, the Council President, LaMonica McIver, she called for the police to eject me out of the meeting.”

Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver: Excuse me, excuse me, Miss Bomani. Madam Clerk, please note Miss Bomani’s disruption as well as, we're going to place a ban for the disruption. I'm sorry, Mr. BA (Business Administrator). Give me one second. Police, can we get some assistance? I asked for folks not to respond back when folks are having their time to respond. Ms. Bomani, please depart from the chambers. Please depart from the chambers. Thank you, Mr. BA.

Munirah El Bomani: Why won't you grow up? You step up steady on the mic attacking me. Let me have my equal airtime, you criminal. 

“And from that point on, I was ejected out of the meeting. And I stayed in the hallway until the meeting was over and folks, individuals that I was waiting for to come out after the meeting. 

“Then on the 16th of February, I received a notice from the clerk, the city clerk, who then said that I was excluded from the February 21st and 27th meeting. So, from that point on, on the 20th, I went to the Superior Court to put in injunctive relief to stop the ban that happened at City Hall. 

“It's time to put an end to these, you know, bans and exclusions from our Council meeting. They are open, public meetings, and according to the Open Public Meetings Act, they are not allowed to exclude people unless it's an extreme, you know, incident.”